Chief Justice John Roberts’ re-write of the Affordable Care Act now goes on the books as another nod to federal government authority over the limitations imposed, either knowingly or unwittingly, by the people’s branch — Congress. Yes, the Executive Branch can define what our laws mean — even if it is the opposite of what the words in the law say.
The same day the Court ruled on Obamacare they also ruled that cities can be held liable when not enough minorities live in any given neighborhood — even if discrimination was never at play. In this decision the federal government was allowed a subjective and powerful tool to impose their views on cities and citizens.
To complete the trifecta of an unlimited government, the IRS revealed that despite federal court orders to preserve evidence ordered to be turned over to Congress and litigants, the IRS nevertheless erased Lois Lerner’s e-mails. The same e-mails the IRS first repeatedly claimed were “lost.” The same e-mails that likely would have shown that both legislators and the White House ordered or encouraged the IRS to go after those who disagreed with Barack Obama’s policies.
That this nation was specifically designed to limit the power of government has been a problem for those liberals and bureaucrats who just can’t get citizens to go along. That problem is being “solved.”
Let’s face the ugly truth that all three branches of government, designed to be in conflict to limit their natural inclination to assert more and more power over citizens, are now working together to do exactly that. Let’s face the fact that Leona Helmsley was right years ago when she told her maid that “laws are for the little people.”
Is there any other explanation for the fact that although Congress agreed to live under Obamacare just as any other citizen that a quiet side-deal with the White House allowed Congress a 75 percent subsidy of Gold Level Obamacare benefits — irrespective of income? That’s hardly how any other citizen is treated under the law.
This feat of putting Congress above the very law it enacted was engineered through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the same agency that ignored years of cyber-security warnings. This negligence has resulted in 18-30 million federal and contractor records, including highly sensitive security clearance information (a blackmailer’s treasure trove), falling into the hands of China’s counter-intelligence operations.
OPM is not alone. Hillary Clinton’s illegal private e-mail server was also likely hacked by China and Iran. Sensitive government strategies — as well as her swaps of foreign policy deals for contributions to her private Foundation — may now also be used by our enemies to blackmail a potential future president. So what?
When we, the “little people,” want to know how our money is being spent the government’s default position is now bald-faced lying. No less than the President of the United States was caught repeatedly and knowingly lying about his “signature issue,” Obamacare. The Freedom of Information Act, a citizen’s legal right to know, has been administratively ignored — just another inconvenient law the powerful can flout.
For Clinton, the IRS, the head of Office of Personnel Management and Members of Congress there simply will be no consequence for either sloppy work or blatant lawbreaking. The rule of law has been repudiated by both the Supreme Court and by the ability of the powerful to duck legal consequences or responsibility. We, the “little people” are now the only citizens required to obey every word of every one of the multitude of laws enacted “for our own good”.
That what the powerful decree is “good for us” but not good enough for themselves is nothing less than the deconstruction of the very things that made our startling American experiment in liberty truly “exceptional.” We only thought we kicked the aristocrats out of this country. But it turns out that Leona Helmsley was right — our laws don’t apply to the powerful — they are just for the “little people.”
Ken Hoagland is a long-time grassroots advocate and author who raised and delivered two million petitions to re-open the Affordable Care Act legislation after it was revealed that the law was fraudulently promoted by elected officials.
